Background to the Method

Understanding one’s own identity and meaning in a changing world: a lifelong learning process. The background to The Multisensory Space Method is vast.

background to the method

Phenomena, linked to present-day society and learning, are the key concepts behind the development of the Multisensory Space Method. Internationalisation and the breakdown of local cohesive culture are part of the reason people and communities now need to contemplate their own identity. As a result of societal changes, learning has become a lifelong phenomenon and there is a demand for different open learning environments. Experiential elements are needed to support learning also in the traditional school world. From the social welfare sector’s perspective the concepts behind the Multisensory Space Method include multisensory work and methods of sociocultural empowerment.

sociocultural empowerment promotes social relation

The purpose of the Multisensory Space Method is to improve interplay between people and the empowerment of individuals. The method can be viewed via the conceptual framework of sociocultural empowerment. Sociocultural empowerment refers to activities that support the individual’s or a group’s empowerment and sense of initiative. Sociocultural empowerment is needed especially when people’s own resources are running low.

Sociocultural empowerment is used to motivate, strengthen and pinpoint an individual’s resources and to promote participation by the individual. Empowerment supports a group’s or individual's efforts to plan and realise activities that will improve their own lives or environment. Sociocultural empowerment can be used to support the integration of people into a specific community or society. It is fundamental to find the interfaces between old and new culture, and acting in accordance with these in our everyday lives.

One of the key concepts of sociocultural empowerment is dialogue that is productive interaction between people. It is important that dialogue springs forth within the community and with the operating environment. Dialogue plays an important role in the Multisensory Space Method; the purpose of the space is to promote discussion. At the same time, the purpose of the space is to support a level playing field for interplay between people.

multisensory work and multisensory learning

Multisensory refers to sense experiences gained simultaneously via multiple senses. A person forms an image of the world through their senses, and the experiences a person has via their different senses promote wellbeing and learning.

In the context of social work, multisensory activities are often linked to work with the disabled, which incorporates a lot of teaching, rehabilitation and therapy based on the senses and one’s experiences. For example, the Snoezelen method, which was developed in the Netherlands, for work with the developmentally disabled has spread over the decades and is now used worldwide.

Pagliano (1998, 107) defined the multisensory space used in the method as follows:

”... where stimulation can be controlled, manipulated, intensified, reduced, presented in isolation or combination, packaged for active or passive interaction, and temporally matched to fit the perceived motivation, interests, leisure, relaxation, therapeutic and/or educational needs of the user. It can take a variety of physical, psychological and sociological forms.”

Multisensory processes are also utilised and researched in other ways in learning: stimuli perceived through two different senses have been utilised in learning of mathematics and languages. On one hand, sounds and smells activate the learner’s memory to connect events to what he/she has previously learned, which is why music is also incorporated into teaching.

The purpose of a multisensory space is not de facto to support leaning through the combined impact of senses, but rather to utilise multisensory processes as an experience-rich learning environment, which means that positive experiences motivate students to learn.

As in animal pedagogy, this approach strives to offer an alternative to cognitive and behavioural learning concepts. One objective of learning is to find one’s own identity and, in this way, finding achieving a meaningful life.

A good physical learning environment can motivate an individual to learn, as well as to take responsibility for his/her learning. Design and construction of the multisensory space can also function as an open learning environment, in which learners create a shared space by sharing their own expertise and acting as a peer network. The Multisensory Space Method incorporates experience-based, hands-on, social and project learning.

identity negotiation

Defining an individual’s or group’s identity is a life-long process of interaction. Identities are born as a combination of “external” i.e. social definitions and "internal” i.e. one’s own definitions (Jenkins 2008).It has been said that in modern society identity negotiation is an increasingly individual process and that we have moved from a hierarchy-based society of structure to an era of horizontal groups and individualised individuals. On the other hand, classifications and the identities they produce are a way to make sense of a complicated world (Jenkins 2008)

Identities are not something “which already exist, transcending place, time, history and culture. Cultural identities come from somewhere, have histories. Far from being eternally fixed in some essentialised past, they are subject to the continuous 'play' of history, culture and power. Far from being grounded in a mere 'recovery' of the past, which is waiting to be found, and which, when found, will secure our sense of ourselves into eternity, identities are the names we give to the different ways we are positioned by, and position ourselves within, the narratives of the past.” (Hall 1999)

The Multisensory Space Method can be used to help contemplate and define an individual’s or a group’s identity. The method can be used as a tool in contemplating what is important, shared or distinct and different from others. This type of dialogue can be used to assess our own values and roots.

Identity negotiation is a process that immigrants, for instance, must go through, as they reassess their life in their new society. The multisensory space can function as a producer of good and familiar experiences for immigrants of all ages, and therefore as an instrument for shaping one’s identity. Representatives of the general population can also go through identity negotiations when contemplating the significance of their immediate community, local identity and being Finnish in the midst of globalisation. The Multisensory Space Method has been used, for instance, as an instrument for determining and strengthening local identity in village planning. Also people with different backgrounds can use the Multisensory Space Method to find connecting factors, things that are important to both or experiences of which they have the same type of memories. This is a way of creating social relation and a sense of belonging.

reminiscence work

Reminiscence is the act of recalling and sharing one's memories. Reminiscence work is a process of thinking and speaking that links the past and present, and highlights a life already lived. Reminiscence allows people to see their life experiences in a new light, whereupon separate experiences add up into a meaningful whole. This allows a person to get new perspectives on their own experiences and to gain the energy to carry painful memories. Sharing memories allows us to build social relations. Sharing memories in a group can bring up things we had forgotten. People of all ages can take part in reminiscence, as it empowers everyone. The process of building a multisensory space can be a group reminiscence process during which the multisensory space is built from the results of the reminiscence work. A completed space can also inspire reminiscence and sharing of experiences.